Leave the Hurt Behind
by Maze-zen
Summary: An alternative ending to Love Never Dies where Christine actually steps up.


**From a Tumblr prompt ask: "Please look at me." **  
**I've for a while had this idea for Christine to actually assert herself and object to the way Raoul and Mr. Y behaves. So here it is.**

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Meg Giry stood sobbing at the pier, gun in her shaking right hand, as her mother, her employer and her dear old friend tried to digest what she had just revealed: That she had sold herself to important men - all to grease the wheels for Mr. Y's Phantasm. Not once, but many times and with many different men. While Christine felt sympathy for the poor girl, it was clear to her that Madame Giry was more affronted that her daughter had admitted to have done it.

Meg's attention, however, was on the stunned Mr. Y who stood closest to her - his eyes finally on her. "And who kept singing? Desperate for your favor? Who kept dancing? Hoping you would save her?" She was struggling to say the words she needed to say to him as she trembled with sobs.

He tried to step closer to her which made her lift the gun once more and her voice grew loud. "Who kept dying?! And THIS is what you gave her!" She looked down at the gun, then back to him. "Now that I've got your attention at last…" She lifted the gun to her temple and closed her eyes before shouting: "Here's the big finish and then you can go!"

Christine stepped in front of Mr. Y who looked as if he was seeing Meg for the first time. But Christine had always known this side of her friend existed. And despite the fact that they hadn't seen each other in 10 years, she had seen the pain in her friend's eyes when they'd met again. Though it was different from her own, she knew how tough it was to keep up the facade. Mr Y may have missed Christine as his muse, but he had been able to hide himself and wallow in his misery. Christine and Meg had been forced to face the world and put on a smile.

She couldn't imagine what horrific things Meg had gone through, all to gain the approval from an older man. Meg's father had been a drunkard and died in a bar fight when she was just six years old. Her mother, Madame Giry, had always been somewhat distant and expected Meg to live up to impossible standards as a ballerina. From the first moment Christine had met her, it had been obvious that Meg longed for an older role model, and it seemed that she in the last 10 years unconsciously had expected that Mr. Y could fill that role.

"Look at me, Meg." She begged her oldest friend who had opened her eyes, but had difficulty taking her eyes off Mr. Y. He was trying to get Christine to step back, but she held a hand up to signal that she would take care of this. Unlike him and Madame Giry, she'd had the patience to listen to Meg before, and Meg knew this. "Please look at me."

Finally, Meg's eyes met Christine's; they were filled with misery, pain and despair. Her hold on the gun slackened a little. "I'm here for you, Meg," Christine said, "and I'm not leaving you again. I promise you this. You don't need the approval of those who have hurt you; you need a friend who will always listen."

"You're only staying for him." Meg's eyes drifted back to Mr. Y and she gripped the gun more firmly again. "It's always about him. And about you!"

"And that's is where he's been wrong, Meg! Don't make him right!" Christine nearly yelled when Meg's index finger twitched on the trigger. Meg's eyes went straight back to the woman in front of her. "If you hurt yourself, he will lose his greatest performer. If you hurt me or Gustave, it will be terrible for him. If he dies, then he will be remembered. But this isn't about him or me! This is about you."

Christine wasn't really sure if her reasoning made sense, but it worked on her friend who lowered the gun. Slowly, Christine moved closer. "You clearly don't need him; it's him that needs you. Walk away from this and show the world all that you can do. I'll be by your side, every step of the way. I've missed you so much more than words can say. I'll leave Raoul and you will leave Phantasm. Remember when we were kids - we swore we didn't need men as 'em."

Christine reached her and carefully encircled her in an embrace. Meg's legs gave out and she fell to the pier's boards; Christine followed without hesitation, showing her friend that she would be there no matter what. Meg lifted her arms to wrap around her friend and sobbed loudly into her shoulder, letting Christine with one hand discreetly push the gun to Mr. Y who unloaded it.

Gustave was standing behind his biological father, though the boy didn't know that, clinging onto his tailcoat while looking at his mother who'd saved her old friend.

They had caused a scene by the pier, but Christine couldn't find it in her to care about their audience until she heard a familiar voice demanding to pass through. "Christine, Gustave, oh thank God!" Raoul shouted. Christine reluctantly turned her head a little as the man, who had left her a note in her dressing room to tell her goodbye, rushed towards them.

However, Mr. Y elegantly turned around, making sure that Gustave followed to stand behind him, and stopped Raoul from going nearer. "Ah, Vicomte, you lost our bet. You agreed to leave." His smooth voice was serious, but hinted with humor. Raoul lifted his finger at Mr. Y and opened his mouth to speak, but Christine spoke first.

"What bet?" Meg had quieted her sobbing, but still wept silently into the shoulder Christine's peacock gown. It, however, allowed Christine to turn enough around to stare at the two men she'd loved for so long. At her question Mr. Y suddenly looked suspiciously ashamed, but Raoul eagerly answered her question. "He bet me that you would sing tonight, telling me if you didn't, we would all leave together, rich and without debt. But if you sang, I would have to leave you. He bet on your choice, Christine!"

"But you accepted, Raoul!" Christine yelled at him, making him step back a little, despite already being several meters away from her and Meg. "I got your note saying goodbye! Once again you two were trying to make the decisions for me, caring very little about what I thought! Was it much more important for you to fill your pockets than to listen to my choice?"

Her husband had the decency to look contrite while Mr. Y's expression had turned smug. Her eyes turned to him and burned until he met her glare. "And you! First, you decided that I left with Raoul when a mob was coming for you. Then, you wept when I returned to make sure that you're okay and begged of me to stay with you. Only to leave me the very next morning!" She caught herself before she mentioned that he had gotten her pregnant. It was not time for Raoul to blame her.

"10 years later, you bring me here - to this joke of an amusement part, with my friend working herself to death for you - you kidnap my son and threaten to harm him until you learn the truth and begs me to leave America again." Gustave's eyes widened and he stepped away from Mr. Y, closer to his mother and Meg. It wasn't lost on Christine that Gustave hadn't chosen to go to Raoul. "But suddenly, you change your mind again and persuade my desperate husband into a bet where singing a stupid song is enough to decide how I live my life. I have had enough of you!"

Mr. Y was looking like he'd been slapped which Christine frankly found satisfactory. None of these men deserved her or Meg. And there was no way that Gustave should learn how to treat woman from them. She pulled Meg to her legs and kissed her cheek. Meg looked at her with tearful eyes.

"Come, my sweet girl." Christine said in a gentle voice. "You and me - we're better than them. Let's take Gustave and leave all this behind. Leave the hurt behind."

Meg nodded with a slight smile. Christine took her in one hand and Gustave in another as she walked past the men she'd loved, but now hated, and led them away. To a better future.


End file.
